Evading easy categorisation, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s horror-hued follow-up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) can be read as a transgender allegory, one that compellingly explores the idea of being born into one existence, feeling you should be living a different one, but not knowing how to cross over to this other life where it seems you would be happier.
I Saw the TV Glow begins in 1996, with sheltered teen Owen (Ian Foreman) intrigued by commercials for The Pink Opaque, a young-adult fantasy show that’s on too late for him to watch. But with the help of the older Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine from Bill & Ted Face the Music), Owen finally gets a taste of the show, which then becomes an obsession. Two years later, Owen (now Justice Smith) and Maddy have continued to bond over the series, but find themselves questioning their own reality and identities. As time goes by, fantasy seems to bleed into Owen’s suburban life.
